In The Aftermath
by Katrina Northman
Summary: Archie Andrews is breaking apart into millions of tiny little shards of glass, his father is dead. Jughead Jones is desperately trying to stop Archie's sharp edges from shredding the other boy's heart to nothing, he doesn't mean to lead them both further into the dark. Maybe that's the only place they can survive now. At least there in it together. Dark Jarchie.


Disclaimer: Riverdale and any associated characters or plots don't belong to me I'm just playing with them

So after watching the season two trailer, I became obsessed with the idea of Jughead and Archie kind of going down this dark path together after Fred's death, and I had to get it out of my head somehow so I decided to write this fic, characters will probably occ.

Just so we're all on the same page this will be Jughead x Archie eventually and I'm not sure yet but it's probably going to get really really dark even if it doesn't start off that way.

Anyway, I'm going to try and Update this every one to two weeks depending on my university schedule.

The song is The end of all days by thirty seconds to mars I don't own it either.

Enjoy 😊

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 **Chapter One- The End of All Days**

I'm tired of waiting  
For the end of all days  
The prophets are preaching  
That the god are needing praise

Headlights are coming  
Showing me the way  
Serpents are singing  
A song that meant to save

* * *

It had been six days since Fred Andrews had been shot in a diner, Pop's Choc'lit Shop to be specific.

It had been five days since he hemorrhaged on the operation table, they tried everything to stop the bleeding but in the end, it wasn't enough. He bled out overnight, died at 1:55 on a Tuesday morning.

It had been four days since Archie Andrews knees hit the floor of Riverdale general at two in the morning, he screamed and screamed and screamed until his voice was so raw he could taste blood on his tongue. Jughead Jones kneeled across from him and tried to reach Archie inside his head, tried to bring him back from whatever hell he had entered in his mind, there was no point though he had not entered hell it had followed him into the living world.

It had been three days since he watched his father get lowered into the ground since he had watched people who didn't really know or care about Fred Andrews pretend to mourn his loss like they truly gave a fuck, they wailed and cried and gave condolences and they didn't mean a single word. The whole thing was bullshit but people need to get rid of the guilt that this was their fault, they didn't care that Fred was dead they cared that now there was another death on their conscience. Funerals are not for the dead, they are for the living.

It had been two days since he had looked at himself in the mirror and decided that he was going to make sure nobody could ever take anything away from him ever again, no matter what it took. Two days since he put his fist through the mirror and dispassionately watched shards of glass with his blood on them rain down around his feet since he picked it out of his knuckles and barely even felt it tug at his skin, honestly he was shocked he could still feel anything at all.

One day since he found out from Betty Cooper that Jughead Jones was a Southside Serpent now since he turned away and smiled because at least Jug had people, at least he was surviving. Archie wasn't surviving, Archie was struggling to exist, barely keeping his head above water.

Today he sat in front of Jughead Jones in a booth next to wear his father's blood had stained the floor, there was none there now but he could still see it pooled there in his mind's eye. Jughead Jones was wearing his Southside Jacket, Archie Andrews was not wearing the Letterman jacket his father bled all over he wasn't ever going to wear a Letterman jacket again, he didn't know that yet though.

"I can't live this way Jug" he breathed out and in again trying to stop his chest from caving in "in fear every day that something else is going to be stolen from me, I don't know.. I can't I-I'm not ever going to feel safe again Jug this is never going to go away" he swallowed compulsively tried to stop the tears from coming for the hundredth time today. Maybe if he believed hard enough his father would walk through the door, maybe if he pushed it down far enough he would stop feeling like a metal pole had been shoved through his heart, maybe if he didn't think about it he would cease to remember.

Jughead Jones could almost but quite not understand what his best friend was going through, they were in similar situations, after all, his father was in jail out of his reach his mother and sister were across the country and couldn't seem to care less about him. A while ago it had been him trying to make all the broken shards fit back into the shape of a person. At least his dad was alive, at least he had the Serpents to keep him semi-sane.

"You know I'll always be here for you Arch as ridiculously cliche as that sounds you are my best friend and I would take a bullet for you" Jughead winced that was probably poor wording, he had no idea how to fix this, how do you help your best friend get over watching there dad die, how could he stop all of Archie's sharp edges from shredding the redhead to pieces.

Archie took a deep breath, steeled himself for what he was going to say next "I don't need you to take a bullet for me my dad's already done that, I need you to give me a gun" the words seem to hang in the air ironically a lot like the sound of a rifle being fired, echoing around in their heads, ringing in their ears.

Jughead let the air hiss out through his teeth, fiddled with his hands for a second, if only he had his laptop open then he wouldn't have to look at Archie in the eye. If there were any words he was never expecting to hear from the other boy those would have been it. "Why do you think I can get you a gun?" he looked down at his lap tried not act like he actually could get Archie a gun, he didn't want this, had never wanted it to come to this.

Archie laughed then, it wasn't a happy sound, it was broken it sounded like someone's heart hitting the dirt, like the shards of someone's life breaking apart. "You're literally in a gang Jug if you can't get your hands on a gun your either not a very good member or it's not a very good gang" It wasn't spoken with any malice, simply stated like a fact, after all, it was true.

"You don't need a gun Archie, you need a family and a home. A gun isn't going to make you feel safe again despite what you think" He knew as soon as he spoke that Archie didn't believe him his dad had been taken from with a gin and now he thought the only way to take anything back was the same way.

"Yeah, well, my mums in Chicago and hell will freeze over before she drags me away from you, Betty and Veronica besides now that my mum can't fight over my dad for what she thinks is best and what a terrible job he's doing she seems to have lost interest anyway, like I wasn't a person just something she used in an imaginary chess match" Archie clenched his fist he could feel his nails cutting into his palms he hadn't been that convinced when she had asked him to come to Chicago the last time "so I'll take what I can get I'll take a gun and I'll make sure nobody can ever take another person I love away from me again" He was resolute it was final, this was the path he was choosing and he wasn't going to turn back wasn't even going to glance behind him to see the debris of what his life used to look like.

Jughead sighed it was pretty clear Archie wasn't going to be changing his mind any time soon "OK if-if a gun will make you feel better then I guess I can find you one but it isn't necessarily going to be free Archie, I don't have a gun that I can just give to you and I don't know what the Serpents are going to want from you in return. But you do have a family Arch; Betty, Ronnie and I, we're here for you and if you need us we will be there" Jughead was tensed like a coiled spring he had seen the end of this path that Archie was setting himself down, hell he practically was the end result of Archie's choices. Archie was playing a game that he didn't really know all of the rules for.

Archie seemed to deflate then "Thank you" he sighed "I know it's not truly going to fix things, but I still feel like I need it, somehow it's the only way I feel I can take back control of the huge mess that my life is now. God, I just… I don't know what to do anymore I'm so numb, but not like I can't feel anything more like my hearts been ripped out of my chest and I don't know how to live anymore it's like I've forgotten how to breathe" Jughead could empathize, he knew the feeling well from when his mum and sister had walked away. From when His dad got arrested.

"The world we live in now certainly isn't the one we lived in before last summer, that world had possibility this world… this world is made of dust and pain and ash and blood and rust" The boys sat in silence for a while then let the last week become real in their minds, came to terms with everything that had happened, silently grieved together over a vanilla milkshake and a black coffee, both untouched.

"So where are you going to live now?" Jughead was so worried, so scared for Archie. He had no idea how the other was going to react anymore, what he was going to do. He didn't want his best friend to be like he had only weeks before; homeless, alone, lost.

"Dad left me the house in his will, already paid for and everything. But I-I don't want to live there without him it all seems so empty, so full of silence and nothingness" He didn't say that he didn't want to be on his own, didn't say that last night he woke up because in a nightmare he had been reliving that night over and over again sometimes it still felt like his dads blood was all over his hands, he felt like he could never get it to go away. It was a good night when he died in his father's place, how sick how twisted was that, that a good dream was one when he bled out instead, one where the bullet went through his skull.

"My foster family said it's OK to have friends over if you want to come over sometimes"

"Thanks, Jug" he paused and stared at Jughead for a second "So how does Betty feel about that?" He gestured broadly at Jughead's Serpent Jacket, he didn't have much of an opinion about it himself but then he had just Jug for a gun it would have been a bit hypocritical.

"It wasn't good, she asked me to choose Archie, she said that she couldn't or maybe just wouldn't be with me if I was in a gang, which is pretty hypocritical considering her speech the other night" Jughead seemed to cave in on himself then, he probably wasn't as tired as Archie, no one was as tired as Archie at this point but he was certainly running a close second.

"It's obvious then, what you chose" Archie refused to judge Jug for this decision, refused to turn his back on the only person who was fully in his corner, even if part of it was selfish he did genuinely want to be there for Jug.

Jughead looked down then at his jacket at his untouched coffee, his closed laptop he squeezed his eyes shut tightly why couldn't things just be how they had six months ago everything had nearly been perfect then now the world was in ruins. "I shouldn't have had to choose, that's the thing, Betty is the only one who thought I had to pick the other Serpents couldn't care less if my girlfriend was from the north side. I'm not going to change for her, and all they offered me was a family, a way of surviving I'm the one who said yes after everything why would I say no to that" In this darker Riverdale if you were offered hope or help or reprieve it was madness not to grab it with both hands

"We could all use any family we can get these days, she shouldn't ask you to turn that down" Archie wouldn't turn it down if someone offered him a family, somewhere to be safe, to belong honestly at this stage that's all he wanted now.

Jughead and Archie looked at each other in the eyes then, and silently they made a pact, they would hold onto each other in this new darker world. In Riverdale Jason Blossom's death had been like the apocalypse, they were living the aftermath now. People had been lost but it just meant that they would hang on tighter, defend each other with more and more viciousness. Destroy those that would hurt the other with prejudice and brutality. After all, this was the world of dust and pain and ash and blood and rust. They would do what they must.

* * *

The maniac Messiahs  
Destruction is his game  
A beautiful liar  
Love for him is pain  
The temples are now burning  
Our faith caught up in flames  
I need a new direction  
'Cause I have lost my way


End file.
